Butterflies, Lizards Evolution in Action

"Evolution in Action" claims New Scientist, 23 Dec 2006, p13. In a review of 2006's most significant scientific discoveries, New Scientist claims that "evolutionary biologists were treated to not one but several glimpses of evolution in action right before their eyes." One of the examples given is change in leg length of lizards on a small Caribbean island. When a larger predatory lizard arrived on the island the small lizards "evolved longer legs to escape the predators." Then some of the small lizards began climbing trees to escape predators and the shorter legged lizards became more prevalent. The other example of "evolution in action" given was the formation of two new butterfly species that "arose abruptly from hybridisation between existing species, a form of instant speciation formerly known only in plants."

Editorial Comment: The change in lizard leg length is natural selection, but it is not evolution. Lizards had legs before the predators arrived, and they did not change into another kind of animal after the predators arrived. All that has happened is that lizards that were less efficient at evading predators were killed off. Almost 150 years ago Charles Darwin bluffed people into believing that selecting existing characteristics is the same as evolving new characteristics. Sadly people are still being deceived. The formation of two new butterfly species is not evolution either, although it is speciation. No new genes have been formed. Existing genes have just been re-mixed. The best explanation is that the existing species were originally part of the same created kind, but were separated into smaller subgroups that did not breed with one another, so technically they are separate species. The two species have now come together again and have interbred forming a new subgroup that has a different mix of genes than the first two. These two examples of biological change remind us that the biological processes that evolutionists claim to produce evolution, eg. selection and gene mixing, are real observable processes, but none of them can make one kind of living thing evolve into a different kind. (Ref. reptiles, insects, genetics)